CiranthaSoft, a small software company in Sri Lanka, came up with the Talking Clock application for those who need to hear what time and what date it is. The application puts a floating window on your desktop that tells you what time and what date it is, visually and acoustically. Just take a look at the window and it will tell you the time and date. Click a button and it will speak out the time and date; or set it up so it will speak out the time and date automatically at certain intervals of time.

Your computer must meet the following system requirements to run the Talking Clock application: 600MHz processor or better, 64Mb of RAM memory or more, monitor capable of 800x600 resolution, sound card, Windows XP or Vista, Wine if running on Linux. To get Talking Clock up and running, you need only download an archive, extract and run the executable inside – you don’t have to go through an installation process.

Talking Clock’s interface is a floating window that displays the time and the date. Right click the interface and a few buttons will show up underneath the window, including one that lets you access the Options menu. From said menu, among other things, you can change the color scheme the application uses.

Talking Clock will speak out the time when you tell it. There are three ways to manually get it to speak out the time: 1. Right click the interface then hit Talk Time or Talk Date; 2. Right click the Talking Clock system tray icon and hit Say Time or Say Date. 3. By using hotkeys. In the Options menu you can view and edit the hotkeys assigned to the Say Time and Say Date functions.

Talking Clock can also speak out the time and date all on its own, based on your specifications. It can speak out the time every 60 minutes, for example.

Sometimes you can lose track of time. How many times did you find yourself saying “Oh, it’s 4 already. I was so focused on my job that I forgot I had to meet Kate at 2.” Talking Clock will ensure this does not happen. It speaks out the time automatically, so you know what time it is and take a break. It also lets you set up alarms so that you don’t forget about important things you have to do.

With Talking Clock, you’ll never lose track of time and that’s because the application will speak out the time.

Pros The Talking Clock system requirements are very low. There are several ways to manually get Talking Clock to speak out the time and date; you can also set it up so it will automatically speak them out. From the Options menu you can change the application’s color scheme. You can also set up alarms. Talking Clock is freeware.